


Green Lining by ziggyindrag

by youngavengersbigbang



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 07:52:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngavengersbigbang/pseuds/youngavengersbigbang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy Altman grows up quickly, but is always playing catch up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Green Lining by ziggyindrag

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Altheak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altheak/gifts).



> **Notes:** There is a part two coming, for the rest of the playlist!

  
[Play the fanmix](http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXW3yGJFlVGygp3WnFg9XGaa8sV69YM91)   
[View the fanmix](http://youngavengersbb.livejournal.com/5571.html)   


 

Teddy has to look at pictures to remember what he looked like when he was younger.

It's not that he forgets, really. He has memories of what his body felt like, and what he looked like, but they make no sense. Playing in the park, tripping over his long tangled hair. Going to preschool and getting compliments and strange looks for bright red eyes. Someone in a supermarket screaming about his green skin.

Products of a pretty boring childhood and an overactive imagination, obviously, and getting into comics a little earlier than was perhaps healthy. But when his mom was working late and he was home alone, it was the easiest way to keep his attention, switching between staring at the pages of the comics he hadn't yet learned how to read, and staring out of the windows, hoping to see some of his favorite heroes fly by. They didn't. Not yet.

One day, he'd be in those pages, he promised himself, single digits and already a dreamer. Maybe not one of the heroes, but their friend, at least. Because he didn't have a lot of those. Friends. But when he grew up and got big and strong like his mom said he would (if he ate all his veggies and remembered to clear his plate when he was done!), then friends would be easy for him. He'd be one of the people on the lists at the beginning of each comic, the ones he read over and over once he learned to read. Names like Steve Rogers but also names like Rick Jones.

Rick Jones may not be a superhero but his name fit in with them. Teddy could do that, maybe. That could be Teddy's name on that list.

Except fast forward to middle school and it really couldn't be his name on that list, because his name isn't on any lists. Not basketball, or football, or even baseball. He tried to get his name there, but all that ended up happening was a lot of sweating and his body feeling weird and achy afterwards.

Which actually happened a lot. Almost all the time, even. His mom called it puberty, mentioned he'd be growing hair in weird places and his skin might go weird, but he was having dreams of flying and waking up half out of bed, his back stinging and for a second he would feel bigger and heavier, like his skin was expanding.

He pretended it was all in his head for weeks, until he had a particularly vivid dream and woke up tangled in his own wings.

His scream brought his mother in, and he couldn't hide it then. There was no need to come out of the closet about being a mutant with his mother. She was there, coaxing him as he tried not to panic, reminding him of what he was supposed to look like as the wings slowly shrunk back inside of him. Then she made him a cup of hot chocolate, and smiled and nodded in all the right places as Teddy mumbled through a half-assed explanation about how maybe he'd think about Xavier's but he didn't want to go there just yet.

Because being a superhero would be awesome but being a mutant was terrifying and he wasn't quite ready to admit that's what he was, just yet. Even as he practised changing faces in the mirror.

There was another reason why he didn't want to go to Xavier's just yet, but that wasn't something he was ready to tell his mom. That reason was a boy in his class, a boy that made his stomach feel funny and his cheeks red, for reasons totally separate from his newly discovered X Gene.

Fast forward to high school, and it's a different boy but he looks the same, big and strong and everything Teddy wants to be. And it's pretty easy to justify changing until that's what Teddy is, big and strong just like him. And the boy starts paying attention to Teddy, too, even if it's just in a friendly way. It's more than Teddy's ever had before.

If his mother notices that Teddy suddenly has gone up four sizes and has more muscle than he's ever had before, she decides not to say anything.

Teddy loves his mother a lot.

His name is Greg, and Teddy can almost ignore the fluttery feeling in his stomach when Greg pays attention to him, because he has a real friend, one he hangs out with after school, one he pretends to talk about cute girls with. It's all very normal. He feels very normal, normal enough to have other people start to want to be his friend too, and he forgets all about the lists he once wanted to be on, he hides his comics under his bed and pretends they grow dust. Because hero worship was cool when he was younger but it's not so cool now. It's easy to hide, after the first few references go right over Greg's head. And Teddy doesn't mind. He hides a lot, all told, and it's all fine, really, he doesn't mind at all.

Except he can't hide forever, he's not that good at being normal. He shows Greg how he can change, because that's the easiest to explain, and for a moment he sees fear in Greg's eyes, and he wants to shrink into nothing.

But that's quickly replaced with something he'll later realize is greed, as Greg slaps him on the back and asks 'Could you imitate Iron Man?'

Yes, of course he can. He can also imitate Johnny Storm, Spiderman, the Hulk. He can also imitate Greg's father, calling in to tell the school that Greg is excused. He can also imitate Greg, calling home to say he's staying over at Teddy's while Greg disappears with a girl for the night.

Because that means Greg will spend more time with him, and Teddy doesn't want to let go of his friend, his friend who is gorgeous and perhaps not the kindest but who is kind to him and sometimes Greg catches Teddy staring at him and doesn't say anything and that means a lot. He can imitate Greg's voice without even hearing him now.

He can do a pretty good imitation of just about anyone, really. Teddy Altman is very good at being anyone except Teddy Altman.


End file.
